Page 248 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China
P. 248
six animals climb its sides, and two crouching tigers
and two wheels lie beneath it — fifteen movable
parts in all. The gatekeepers are figural evidence of
one of the "five punishments" of ancient China —
amputation (yuexing) of the foot or of the leg at
the knee. The Zhou li (Rites of Zhou) states that
those who had suffered such amputations were
to be employed to guard the royal parks (you), 4
presumably — given their obvious physical handi-
cap — as gatekeepers, perhaps as they are depicted
here. ES
1 Excavated in 1976 (77); reported: Shaanxi 1980, 2:10, fig. 77.
2 Shaanxi 1980, 2:10, fig. 77.
3 Regarding this vessel, see Wang 1974, 7, 29.
4 For a discussion of the punishment (as well as of the
vessels), see Skosey 1996, 87-91,144-145.
247 | B R O N Z E S FROM Z H U A N C B A I
